(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for issuing coupons, and more particularly to a method for issuing coupons through an automatic transaction apparatus that performs predetermined transactions interactively with a user.
(2) Description of the Related Art
A variety of discount coupons are offered today for promotional purposes. Usually they are made available in the form of printed paper produced by a ticket issuing machine and given out to consumers for use at particular stores. People, however, feel inconvenient to carry many paper coupons with them. Also, they often forget where they put those coupons.
These days, an increasing number of consumers enjoy electronic money transactions using IC cards or similar portable data storage devices for payment at stores. This trend has led to a proposal of electronic coupons for use with IC cards and automatic transaction machines. More specifically, the user receives coupon information by inserting his/her IC card into an automatic transaction machine located at a store. When shopping, the user presents his/her IC card at the cash desk. A salesclerk then confirms the coupon information recorded in the IC card before providing the customer with a discount or other beneficial services.
Also proposed is another type of IC card-based coupon system. This system delivers coupons to users, together with product advertisements. An advertisement server is employed to offer product information services to subscribers who have made registration by sending their personal information, such as gender and occupation, to the server. Based on the data about individual subscribers, the advertisement server selects appropriate pieces of product information from among those stored in a database. It also selects suitable coupon information at the same time, thus compiling a personalized set of advertisements and discount coupons for delivery to the intended subscriber. The subscriber chooses some of the received advertisements and coupons as needed, and stores them in his/her own IC card, together with his/her personal information. When a coupon is used at a store, the cardholder's personal information is transferred from the card reader in that store to the sponsor company that issued the coupon. The company uses this information to update their customer database and membership database for future marketing purposes. For more details about the system, refer to the Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2002-41932.
Recently many stores have an automated teller machine (ATM). People can make access to their deposit account at nearby convenience stores, for example. From a marketing viewpoint, those ATMs and other similar automatic transaction machines are quite attractive as a new advertising medium since they are used by a large number of potential customers every day. Those machines would serve well for sponsors and consumers if they have the functions of both advertising and issuing coupons.
While the use of IC cards for storing coupons is an excellent idea, the problem at the moment is that not every store has an IC card reader for the above-described electronic coupon service. People are unable to enjoy discounts or other promotional service offerings if there is no suitable card reader equipment in the stores.